Transfer: Participation of Sinti*zze and Rom*nja

The trust of Sinti*zze and Rom*nja in science was also shaken in the post-war period. Until 1981, Prof. Dr. Sophie Erhardt at the University of Tübingen used the materials of the ‘Racial Hygiene Research Centre’ from the Nazi era, where she herself had worked before 1945: including family trees, survey maps and tens of thousands of photos. The documents had served as a basis for planning the genocide. The occupation of the Tübingen University Archives on 1 September 1981 and the transfer of the materials to the Federal Archives in Koblenz was a sensational action by the civil rights movement.

Aims

In view of the underrepresentation of Sinti*zze and Rom*nja in the academic system, the research group addresses members of the ‘Student Association of Sinti and Roma in Germany’ who are looking for orientation in the transition from university to doctoral studies. The aim is to introduce Sinti*zze and Rom*nja to academic careers and to reduce the fears of many Sinti*zze and Rom*nja of contact with science, which are rooted in the misuse of science as a cover for eugenics and genocide as well as in recent racist experiences. The participation of Sinti*zze and Rom*nja in science must become a matter of course.

Measures

Four empowerment workshops are planned, which will take place before the research group’s conferences so that members of the ‘Student Association of Sinti and Roma in Germany’ can then take part in the meetings. Two sub-project leaders and two experts, one from the minority, coordinate the empowerment workshops in consultation with the research group's advisory board.

1. ‘Role Model: Historical Roma Personalities and their Impact’ - student results are accessible via the network's multimodal database.

2. ‘How science ticks - rules of the scientific community’.

3. ‘Research ethics in cooperation with Sinti*zze and Rom*nja" - also as further training for the network's young scientists.

4. ‘Co-creation of research with non-academic actors and institutions’ - also as further training for the joint project.